Organized Violence and Organized Abandonment Beyond the Human: the Case of Brucellosis among Palestinians in Israel

ABSTRACT This article explores how brucellosis became a racialized disease in Israel, where almost all patients are Palestinians. Informed by legal and historical research, the article demonstrates how colonial and settler-colonial policies have targeted Palestinians and their goats and contributed to the distribution of brucellosis along ethno-national lines. Goats, once ubiquitous to the landscape, became enemies of the Israeli state and were blamed for the “destruction” of nature. Under Israeli rule, legal policies not only seized and confiscated Palestinian land but also targeted goat grazing and led to a steep reduction in the number of goats. The resulting depeasantization and concentration of Palestinians in dense poor townships shaped goat grazing as a backyard practice with lack of trust in the hostile state and its brucellosis eradication campaigns. We argue that state policies of organized violence and organized abandonment have shaped the current ecology of brucellosis as a racialized disease. IMPORTANCE The importance of this article is the novelty in combining public health, colonial studies, and legal research to understand the ecology of human brucellosis. This approach allows us to move from a “snap-shot” reading of diseases and cultural practices toward a reading of bacteria, animals, and humans within their political and historical context. The article uses a settler colonial lens to examine the racialized distribution of human brucellosis in Israel and traces colonial policies toward Palestinians and goats—both seen as unwanted intruders to the newly established Israeli nation state. We place these policies in a context of organized violence and organized abandonment, building on the work of Ruth Wilson Gilmore to read the power hierarchies of humans, animals, and diseases and how they shape practices and disease.

Thank you for submitting your article for publication. This is an important subject and a unique perspective. Provided below are some of the details that should be addressed in the manuscript.
Minor revisions -there is no need to capitalize the B in brucellosis, except when referring to the scientific name, Brucella spp.
-line 49 appears to be a smaller (or maybe not bolded?) font size compared to neighboring lines. -line 49, should reding be reading? -line 52, goats does not need to be capitalized -line 75, disease does not need to be capitalized -line 81, Brucella Melitensis should be Brucella melitensis -line 82, Brucella Abortus should be Brucella abortus -line 82, sheep does not need the "s" to be plural -line 84, is it 0.2/100 or 0.2/100,000? Same question for 33.5/100 or 33.5/100,000? Line 89 refers to the incidence out of 100,000, so my guess is that it should state 02. and 33.5 out of 100,000, but there is currently a decimal instead of a comma in 100,000.
-line 93, 100, 102 (and many other lines in paper): the font size appears to be smaller or not as bold in some of these sentences. Please check for consistency throughout the paper.
-line 122, it should be brucellosis instead of Brucella -line 125, B. melitensis should be italicized.
-line 130, could say "fresh goat milk" instead of freshly milked goat milk -lines 130-139, are there additional citations/references that can be used throughout this section, or is it all related to reference number 16? -lines 136-139, please check verb tense and ensure consistency (line 138, doesn't should be don't/do not) -line 173, could state "the first prime minister of Israel" or "Israel's first prime minister." -line 185, could state "their goats rapidly became the target. . ." instead of "but also their goats who rapidly became the target. . ." -line 187, per cent should be percent; depending on the journal specifications, could also be written as 3%. -lines 192-203, are all details covered by references 32 and 33? -line 198, goat should be plural -line 223, should state between 1948 and 1966 (or from 1948 to 1966) instead of "between 1948 to 1966." -line 228, remove "a" from end of proletarianization -line 233, delete "put" -line 233, do not need hyphen in goat-owners -lines 241-242, check word choice, tense and order -line 246, reduce should be reducing -line 247, sentence could read ". . .a Palestinian parliamentary member pushed the repeal. . ." -line 260, remove "a" after "as" -line 261, "is" should be "are" -line 262, could just say "Cows" instead of The Cows -line 264, could add hyphen to cow based -line 267, should say "became a cornerstone of. . ." or "one of the cornerstones" and could replace the second use of "became" in sentence with "as it developed into. . ." -line 268, Brucella abortus is the appropriate spelling. -line 269, replace "has been" with "was" -line 275, add "s" to Palestinian -line 275, the authors toggle between "backyard" and "back yard." Select one and be consistent.
-line 277 and 281, authors toggle between socio-economic and socio economic. Could also use socioeconomic. Select one and be consistent.
-line 278, Israel should be Israeli -line 280-282, please check word choice, tense and order -line 283, use 283,000 instead of 283 thousand -line 315, should it be "both the Palestinian and the goat"?
Major revisions -Please ensure that font size and other formatting is consistent throughout the paper, as there are multiple places throughout the paper where the font size appears to change.
-Please ensure that the spelling of Brucella spp. or brucellosis is used appropriately throughout the paper.
-Additional use of citations in certain parts of the paper may be warranted.

Article Summary
This paper supports the theory that the status of human brucellosis cases in Israel is the result of historical racial tensions and persecution of Palestinians by the Israeli government, rather than due to cultural practices. The authors provide a thorough history of the marginalization of the Palestinian Bedouins, and subsequently their goats, and how these communities were forced to raise their herds as an illegal backyard practice rather than openly as a profession. Thus, limiting appropriate preventive veterinary care of the goat herds and increasing public health risk of brucellosis. The authors also cite recent brucellosis case numbers and a previously implemented successful control program. They urge that addressing the colonization of these communities is necessary to address brucellosis at the population level.

Minor revisions
-there is no need to capitalize the B in brucellosis, except when referring to the scientific name, Brucella spp.
-line 49 appears to be a smaller (or maybe not bolded?) font size compared to neighboring lines.
-line 49, should reding be reading? -line 52, goats does not need to be capitalized -line 75, disease does not need to be capitalized -line 81, Brucella Melitensis should be Brucella melitensis -line 82, Brucella Abortus should be Brucella abortus -line 82, sheep does not need the "s" to be plural -line 84, is it 0.2/100 or 0.2/100,000? Same question for 33.5/100 or 33.5/100,000? Line 89 refers to the incidence out of 100,000, so my guess is that it should state 02. and 33.5 out of 100,000, but there is currently a decimal instead of a comma in 100,000.
-line 93, 100, 102 (and many other lines in paper): the font size appears to be smaller or not as bold in some of these sentences. Please check for consistency throughout the paper.
-line 122, it should be brucellosis instead of Brucella -line 125, B. melitensis should be italicized. -line 130, could say "fresh goat milk" instead of freshly milked goat milk -lines 130-139, are there additional citations/references that can be used throughout this section, or is it all related to reference number 16? -lines 136-139, please check verb tense and ensure consistency (line 138, doesn't should be don't/do not) -line 173, could state "the first prime minister of Israel" or "Israel's first prime minister." -line 185, could state "their goats rapidly became the target. . ." instead of "but also their goats who rapidly became the target. . ." -line 187, per cent should be percent; depending on the journal specifications, could also be written as 3%. -lines 192-203, are all details covered by references 32 and 33? -line 198, goat should be plural -line 223, should state between 1948 and 1966 (or from 1948 to 1966) instead of "between 1948 to 1966." -line 228, remove "a" from end of proletarianization -line 233, delete "put" -line 233, do not need hyphen in goat-owners -lines 241-242, check word choice, tense and order -line 246, reduce should be reducing -line 247, sentence could read ". . .a Palestinian parliamentary member pushed the repeal. . ." -line 260, remove "a" after "as" -line 261, "is" should be "are" -line 262, could just say "Cows" instead of The Cows -line 264, could add hyphen to cow based -line 267, should say "became a cornerstone of. . ." or "one of the cornerstones" and could replace the second use of "became" in sentence with "as it developed into. . ." -line 268, Brucella abortus is the appropriate spelling. -line 269, replace "has been" with "was" -line 275, add "s" to Palestinian -line 275, the authors toggle between "backyard" and "back yard." Select one and be consistent.
-line 277 and 281, authors toggle between socio-economic and socio economic. Could also use socioeconomic. Select one and be consistent.
-line 278, Israel should be Israeli -line 280-282, please check word choice, tense and order -line 283, use 283,000 instead of 283 thousand -line 315, should it be "both the Palestinian and the goat"?
Major revisions -Please ensure that font size and other formatting is consistent throughout the paper, as there are multiple places throughout the paper where the font size appears to change.
-Please ensure that the spelling of Brucella spp. or brucellosis is used appropriately throughout the paper. Kindly see below our point-by-point responses to the reviewers' comments.

Reviewer #1 (Comments for the Author):
1. This is a highly original and fascinating paper that succeeds in situating a harmful bacterial disease, Human Brucellosis (HB), in its full historical, political, legal, socioeconomic, cultural, and behavioral context to explain extreme social inequalities in the disease in a particular setting. Whereas many attempts are made to define the multi-causal origins of disease using a bio/sociocultural model, this paper captures the upstream dynamics that must be considered to achieve disease prevention and reduce inequalities.
The findings are significant in themselves, and also as a model for penetrating and interpreting causality in both settler colonial and other situations. The paper is well organized and fully referenced, and the conclusions are sound and compelling.
Response: We thank the reviewer for the kind words.

Given the target audience of the journal (who may not be well schooled in the social
sciences), the use of the term "racialization" may be somewhat confusing or misleading. To clarify, in the text or in a footnote, that "race" or "racialization" is not meant to imply biological or genetic characteristics, the authors might want to explain the terminology or substitute a different term such as "marginalization," "discrimination," or "colonization." Similarly, while the power analysis of Ruthie Wilson Gilmore is a very appropriate theoretical framework, it would be helpful to summarize briefly Dr. Gilmore's work.
Response: We agree with the reviewer and thank them for this comment. We have added the following footnote to line 110 "As race is being widely understood as a social construct and not a biological category, we will use the frame "racialization" as explained by Ronit Lentin "[r]acialization is a technology of the state. It operates by producing a series of distinctions relating to origin, kinship, and lineage as well as by linking physical characteristics to cognitive abilities, cultural norms, and modes of behavior. Its objective is to propel processes of differentiation and hierarchization in order to facilitate modes of governance and control." We extend this framework of organized violence and organized abandonment, originally used to study police violence and mass incarceration of Black and other communities of color in the USA, not only to humans but also to animals in Palestine/Israel as they became racialized and criminalized in the logic of the settler state. Applying these terms to the case of HB among Palestinians, we elaborate how the state's organized violence (dispossession, confiscation of lands, home demolition) and organized abandonment (deprivation of social services such as water and electricity infrastructures, education and healthcare) (16) provide a more accurate explanation for the proliferation of the disease than merely laying the blame on Palestinian cultural practices. Response: We thank the reviewer for this remark. Yes, indeed this is likely. We have added the following sentence with a reference to a study that focused of pregnancy outcomes of HB in line 97 " Ghanem Zoubi et al have demonstrated in a cross sectional study in Israel that localities with high incidence of HB had significantly higher rates of intra uterine fetal death and preterm birth among other pregnancy complications compared to towns with low incidence (Ghanem-Zoubi et al. 2018)."

Line 103: The situation you describe is not "either/or" --can you suggest or foreshadow here the interrelationship between state policies and cultural practices?
Response: We thank the reviewer for this remark. We have further explained how using the term "culture" in order to explain collective behaviors can be a dangerous tool. We have added the following paragraph in line 102-109 In "writing against culture", the anthropologist Lila Abu-Lughod argues that culture can be a dangerous, populist, and subtle tool used to blame a particular group for a certain type of collective behavior. Cultural explanations rely on generalization to enforce separation, otherness and hierarchy and thus makes it easier to conceive of a group of people as a discrete, bounded entity, "who do this or that and believe such-andsuch" (15). This article will challenge this narrative with regards to HB in Israel and argue that those cultural practices and the resulting abundance of HB among Palestinians is rather exacerbated by the Israeli state's policies towards Palestinians and their livestock. Looking beyond "culture" brings into clearer view how brucellosis has become a racialized disease.

Line 104: Does the Microbes and Social Equity (MSE) Working Group? have a geographical location or institutional affiliation?
Response: We thank the reviewer for this reminder. We have added "founded and lead by Prof Suzanne Ishaq from the University of Maine" in line 135.

Line 121: The Maltese example is so interesting and instructive, as is the later contrast with the breeding of Israeli Holstein cows.
Response: Thank you. Indeed, it is a fascinating and educational example.

Line 187: Does this mean "exclusively engaged"?
Response: Yes. We have changed the wording accordingly. It is now in line 223.

Line 192: State the years of the British Mandate.
Response: We thank the reviewer for this reminder. We have added "from 1917 to 1948" in line 228.

Line 195: Perhaps define "afforestation" (it is clear in context, but probably an unfamiliar term).
Response: we have edited the paragraph and explained the term "afforestation" by adding: (i.e. the planting of trees to establish human-made forests) in line 231.

Line 198-200: Was there established science at the time to refute these claims?
Response: We edited the sentence to avoid describing the evolvement of the science behind these claims. Instead, we decided to rephrase the framing to reflect dispute within the administration's officialdom more broadly, without any explicit reference to the scientific claims made at that point.
[For context: these claims were both articulated and disputed by officials at the British administration during the first half of the 20 th century. Some of these officials also acted in their role as "scientific experts" (such as the chief of veterinary services, chief of forest division, etc.).
In the 1970s, several Israeli scientists publicly contested the Israeli government's claims that goats pose a threat to nature, and only in the 1980s and 1990s the opinion that goats are not a threat to "nature" has gained consensus and appeared in scientific articles.]

Line 235: Are more recent (since 1980) estimates available?
Response: We have added a sentence to reflect the fact that "since then, the number of goats has not grown any further." In line 272.

Line 237: Perhaps set off in quotes "everyday form of resistance"?
Response: We thank the reviewer for this reminder. We have added quotes and it is located now in lines 274.

Line 240: Persecution or prosecution?
Response: We thank the reviewer for this comment. We have changed the choice of words from "prosecution" to "persecution." Line 253: Put "racially" in quotes, or just superior?
Response: We thank the reviewer for this reminder. We have added quotes to "racially". It is now in line 289.

Lines 280-282: For those relocated Palestinians who have employment, what are common occupations (and associated health hazards)?
Response: Thank you for this remark. We have added the following sentence "Palestinians workers are often concentrated in low paying sectors of the economy such as construction and industries (45) that carry high occupational health hazards such as falls, injuries and death (46).

To lines 319 -321.
Line 295: Can you clarify --were the 40,000 slaughtered animals shown to be diseased or was this a "preventive" culling? Did the 40,000 compose 28% of the total, with the other 72% free of disease?
Response: Reference 9 states that "Starting on 1993, a veterinary campaign aimed to eradicating the disease among small ruminants and consisting of a "test and slaughter" policy supplemented with administration of the B. melitensis Rev.1 strain vaccine to all ewe-lambs and female kid-goats was implemented countrywide. Throughout the campaign, more than 40,000 animals were slaughtered and 72% of the flocks were declared free of disease." In reference 2 of that paper the authors state that "Throughout the campaign, in the interim programme 1635 flocks (59,901 ewes and goats) and in the eradication campaign 4,292 flocks (195,176 ewes and goats) were tested. More than 40,000 ewes and goats were slaughtered establishing around 72% of the flocks clear of the disease." So, one might assume that the program had an interim part and a more extensive eradication campaign and most animals that were slaughtered were infected."

Lines 301-311: Can you say what conditions made possible this successful, communitybased collaborative effort in Taibe?
Response: As we state in line 342, the campaign was intersectoral and community based, as we wrote it involved local doctors, nurses, the veterinary service, and school officials. Here we believe lies the strength of such a program in creating trust with the community.

Reviewer #2 (Comments for the Author):
Thank you for submitting your article for publication. This is an important subject and a unique perspective. Provided below are some of the details that should be addressed in the manuscript.
Response: We thank the reviewer for these kind words.

Minor revisions
-there is no need to capitalize the B in brucellosis, except when referring to the scientific name, Brucella spp.
Response: We thank the reviewer for this comment. We have changed the capitalization throughout the text.
Response: We thank the reviewer for this remark. We have changed it to Palestinians.
-line 49 appears to be a smaller (or maybe not bolded?) font size compared to neighboring lines.
Response: We apologize for this. We have made the entire text in Times New Roman font, size 12.

-line 49, should reding be reading?
Response: We thank the reviewer for the sharp eye and this remark. We have changed it to "reading".

-line 52, goats does not need to be capitalized
Response: We thank the reviewers for this comment. We have changed the capitalization.

-line 75, disease does not need to be capitalized
Response: We thank the reviewers for this comment. We have changed the capitalization.

-line 81, Brucella Melitensis should be Brucella melitensis
Response: We thank the reviewers for this comment. We have changed the capitalization to melitensis throughout the text.

-line 82, Brucella Abortus should be Brucella abortus
Response: We thank the reviewer for this comment and have changed the capitalization to abortus throughout the text.
-line 82, sheep does not need the "s" to be plural Thank you for submitting your manuscript to mSystems. We have completed our review and I am pleased to inform you that, in principle, we expect to accept it for publication in mSystems. However, acceptance will not be final until you have adequately addressed the reviewer comments.
The authors have done well to address the reviewer comments, and the reviewers and I agree on the quality of the revision. In principle, the reviewers and I agree that the manuscript is acceptable for publication, however, a number of minor corrections were suggested that would be helpful to include. Due to the number and type of suggestions, I felt that this would be easier to remedy in another revision rather than during proofing. Once the corrections are made and a revised manuscript is submitted, I anticipate accepting the manuscript without sending it out for another round of reviews.
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